The Chicago Blackhawks appear to be playing a game of 'What's My Line?' ahead of Friday's clash with the Minnesota Wild.

Blackhawks head coach Joel Quenneville is notorious for mixing up his forwards, but it's often just a case of flopping wingers so Patrick Kane could skate with Jonathan Toews or something small such as moving Ben Smith from the fourth line to second-line centre.

The old blender appears to have whipped up a wild concoction for Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal series.

Based on practice the day before and the morning skate, Toews was skating with Smith and Bryan Bickell on his wings, while Kane had Brandon Saad and Marcus Kruger on his line, Patrick Sharp, Michal Handzus and Marian Hossa were a line and the fourth trio consisted of Brandon Bollig, Joakim Nordstrom and Jeremy Morin.

“I think he wants more spark from each line. Last game wasn't the game we were looking for,” Bickell said.

Last game was the 4-0 Minnesota victory that cut left Chicago leading 2-1 in the best-of-seven affair.

For those who said they predicted the Wild winning because of Chicago's odd run of losses in the first road game of a series – it's up to nine straight – it's worth noting how the Blackhawks have fared in games following.

The defending Stanley Cup champs have a 15-5 mark in games that followed and won six of those previous eight series.

Expectations abound of a bounce-back effort.

“I think it's probably going to be the best game of our series,” Bickell said. “I know a couple games have been questionable, especially the last game. We don't want to be tied going back home. We need to get our momentum back, get our mojo back and just put in a full 60 minutes.”

The Wild will have Matt Cooke in the lineup fresh off the seven-game suspension he was handed or a knee-on-knee hit on Colorado Avalanche defenceman Tyson Barrie in the opening round.

It's Cooke's sixth suspension, but don't expect him to tone it down too much.

“Obviously, I don't want to see anyone get hurt and neither does anyone else, but you also don't want this to be a figure-skating contest out there,” he said. “It's something I've tried to pride myself on, especially here over the last three years that you can play physical without being at risk.”

Matt Moulson is out due to an undisclosed injury.

The Blackhawks also plan to insert defenceman Nick Leddy in place of Sheldon Brookbank. Leddy was a healthy scratch last game, a tough blow to the blueliner from Minnesota.